Monday, 30 June 2008

.......my best Op shop (charity shop) find ever. So I've actually included 2 because I'm a cheat but you must admit that they are both fab - and both very recent finds too :)

This quilt was bought because I decided to pop into my favourite charity shop ever (it's called Only Foals and Horses*) on a whim and it jumped into my arms and was mine for the measly sum of £1.99! I practically danced back to the car :)

And of course the buttons are included in my favourite op shop finds ever. Because, well just because!

As you might have guessed I am back from London but need time to catch up on things and I'm very busy this week so I might not get the blog updated for a couple of days - we'll see though!

Sunday, 29 June 2008

Hello everyone!Have you missed me? Didn't think so :) London is fab although I now remember why I need my inhaler in London and I very rarely do at home - and guess who forgot it! We were busy yesterday as we went charity shopping in Pimlico and then to see the matinée of The Sound Of Music and then on to see Wicked in the evening - none of this relaxing malarkey! Both musicals were fantastic although I think I slightly preferred Wicked. I also got some bargains in the charity shops although the prices are a lot more than I am used to paying. I saw a really nice Gap jumper but it was £9.99 - not a chance I was paying that so I left it. I did get a very cool vintage dress for £8 and a sewing box crammed full of old threads for a fiver. No piccies yet but you can expect them soon so do not fear. I'm off to have breakfast soon so I will be back when we get back!

Wednesday, 25 June 2008

First I got the buttons and then on the way back from the sewing machine shop (nothing wrong with it I'm just an idiot!) I spied a parking space outside the Colne Road branch of Pendleside Hospice charity shop. I'd never been in before so I thought I would have a look. Well the woman in there was the rudest woman I have ever met who works in customer service (apart from a lady in Poundland) but the goodies in there were fab!!

I got this fabulously retro toy making book - I'm going to have fun with this when I get some time!

I got some cute pink fabric with these small details - it would make great chickens!

Some needlecraft magazines that date from the early 1950s - there are some lovely items in there and the adverts are great!

A commemorative scarf from 1977!

A wonderful apron that is so bright and colourful - more photo's on my Flickr soon.

Some hooks and eyes (always useful) and a new hanky! I also got lots of linens to practise my embroidery on and some more to use for packaging up items. Oh and some patterns and books to cut up. But the best of all is waiting until last - and I got it at my favourite charity shop, Only Foals and Horses in Burnley (I'm so pleased we called in there on a whim!) This gorgeous quilt was £1.99. Yep only £2 new English pounds.

It's double the size it looks in the first photograph so it will easily fit onto our bed! And so this is why the charity shop gods are smiling on me this week! Lets hope it continues into the weekend when I will be in London!

So the other day I ran out of thank you cards to send out with my sales and needed to make some more. The ones I had made before weren't very me (a flowery thank you stamped folded card so I could write in the inside) So I had a bright idea! Some new flat cards with a cheeky chicken on the front (what else!) and a sticker on the back with my details. All on repurposed cardboard from cereal packets etc naturally!

They do the job, I don't have to scrabble around for a pen to write a note inside, they are recycled, they show my 'unique' art skills (!) and they use up half of the cardboard as my others did - result!

On another note my sewing machine is being repaired this afternoon and won't be back for just over a week so my chickens and other things that need sewing have all gone out of my Etsy shop for the time being. If you desperately need a chicken doorstop then I might be able to borrow one from a friend :)

Monday, 23 June 2008

Ok so I am officially thrilled with the buttons! I have counted the amount of buttons in one of the tubes and going by the price on the tube (5p per button) I have £16 worth of buttons in just that one tube! Ok the buttons are small and it's one of the fuller tubes but there are tubes that go up to 16p per button! Would it be very sad to figure out what the whole lot would be worth if I bought them now? The prices on the tubes are oldish - 1980's - so if I add it all up then I could see the price 20 years ago. That would be sad though right?? I counted the tubes and there are 183!!

Oh I also meant to say that I got some other bargains too but they will have to wait for another day :)

Sorry for the capital letters but I have just scored THE BEST button stash ever!!! Let me tell you the story behind it first :) Matt booked my car in for it's MOT this morning but instead of the Kwik Fit in Burnley he mistakenly booked it into the one in Accrington (about 5 miles away) No problem I thought as I have never been charity shop shopping in Accy before so there's an opportunity. Anyway on the way to finding the garage I drove past my idea of charity shop heaven - a grotty looking one that was for a local charity rather than the big ones like Oxfam etc. Anyway it took me until quarter to 11 to get back to this shop and I wasn't dissapointed! It had piles of books tottering over and stuff I had to wheel Tara around carefully in case I broke anything! Then I spotted two huge racks of buttons against the wall and a sign stating 'Fill a tube for £3' So I did but as I was doing so I started to wonder how much it would be for all of the buttons :) I asked and was quoted a price that was too high for me but I bartered her down and this is what I got!

Not all the tubes are full and most don't correspond with the button on top but I am going to have so much fun sorting through these little beauties!!

Oh and the girls take after me - this is them appreciating the buttons when I brought them in!

Sunday, 22 June 2008

Well it's 5 to 6 in the morning and I have been awake from 5.30 when Tara decided that she wanted to scream the house down. Luckily she has gone to sleep on Matt so hopefully they will get a bit extra sleep - I couldn't get back to sleep though so I'm up writing tomorrows Cuteable posts! Whoooo hooo - I know how to live! Oh and we didn't get to sleep until 12.30 (which is very late for us) as we were doing the accounts and watching a very, very bad British B movie called Psychomania. It was so bad that it was almost good if you know what I mean? Anyway it's Tara's 2nd birthday today although she's not actually 2 until Tuesday so I have Angel Delight to make and millions of sandwiches too!

And here is the little one fast asleep on me a couple of weeks ago with a very dirty face - bless!

Thursday, 19 June 2008

This is what greeted me this morning when I came downstairs. The three custom chickens I made last night were acting very suspiciously in the chair and they quickly scurried away from each other when they saw me coming. I swear there was a nonchalant whistle too from one of them!

Maybe they were planning to take over the world - too bad that they have been split up then to go to their new homes although the stripy and psychedelic chickens will be in the same house for a little while. I'd watch out for them Mel!

In other chicken news my friend Alex bought me some chicken knickers the other day!!!!! I've only opted to show you the pattern as you don't really need to see pics of voluminous knickers!

The lovely Andreanna featured me on her blog today and I am very pleased with the write up! So go and check out her blog and her shop too for some fantastic finds. Go and check out the blog for my full answers and laugh at my response to the unladen swallow one!

I've also just hit 80 sales in my Etsy shop as of last night so I am very pleased with that too! Here's a sneaky screenshot for you! Ok - so the screenshot didn't show the details enough so you will have to have a look here to see for yourself!

Tuesday, 17 June 2008

So I was sat innocently eating my tea tonight and Anya asked me if I had laid Nana T (my mum). I finally got what she meant (had I given birth to Nana) and I said no. So she then asked who had. A lady called Gladys I said. Next question came and I thought uh oh! So where is Gladys now? Well Gladys died when Nana T was 13 years old. So did she go up there - pointing to the sky. (Me being an atheist married to a Christian we always knew this was going to be a tricky one to answer!) So I said that some people think that you go up there into heaven where God lives, some people think that you float round in the sky with the birds etc and some people don't think anything happens at all. So what happens when we die? So I explained that the very special part of you that makes you who you are comes out and then your body is left. So why do people die? I explained that people's bodies stop working when they get older (I haven't explained premature death yet - I'll leave that one to Daddy!) and they stop working. The special part of them leaves and that's the part that some people think goes to heaven etc. The next one was a bugger though. So Mummy are you going to die? Erm yes sweetheart but not for a very long time. Cue lots of tears and snuggles needed. So she sat down to have her tea and then stopped suddenly and said 'Am I going to die?' with lots and lots of tears. So I reassured that yes she would die (we believe in telling the truth in this house) but not until she was much older. The crying eventually stopped so I sat her back to eat her tea. Then she suddenly thought about Bo (her much loved teddy) and said 'but what will happen to Bo when I die?' I didn't know what to say to this (lots of thoughts but couldn't just pick one) so I just snuggled and shushed her.

Monday, 16 June 2008

So a little boy I know was one yesterday and I went and delivered his present today - he didn't seem that thrilled with it but mum was! And here it is - a car mat that turns into a bag to keep the toy cars all together!

The bottom photo is of the 'bag' that the mat turns into - cool eh??

Oh and here is his card - I loved the glittery orange monkey cardboard and had to buy it!!

I'll be back tomorrow with some chicken related goodies - Alex bought them for me!

Sunday, 15 June 2008

Did you miss me? We've been over at my in laws this weekend as it was their annual garden party where we go and help out. It was also fathers day so we visited my dad too. Owen liked his notebook and he has a meeting tomorrow so will use it then! I got back to lots of emails but my favourite was from Saysie who told me that she had featured me in a treasury - yeah!!

I'm off to bed now but I will be back to show you what I have made for Nathaniel's birthday tomorrow!

Thursday, 12 June 2008

We think it's a server issue as we can't even log in the C panel section on our hosting thingy (see I'm technical me!) I'm not even sure if people from Cuteable check here but I think I'll add something to Cuteable in the future so that people will know where to check if Cuteable goes down. Phew - hope that makes sense!! We are raising a ticket with the hosting company and we'll see if that gets us anywhere!Fingers crossed it will be back soon!

Update at 6.20 - a card on the server is faulty and they are replacing it - lets hop it doesn't take too long!

Update at 8pm - it seems to be back now - yeah!! just don't breath on it because it might break again!

Wednesday, 11 June 2008

So I would like honest opinions on these journals that I have made. Would you buy them? If so why and if not why not? The first two are slightly flawed due to teething problems with the bind it all machine! Because of the flaws I'm trying to decide of I should add them to my etsy store - they would obviously go into the whoops section but what do you think? Decisions decisions!

The first one you may have seen before but I have added the word travel along the bottom with scrabble tile style letters.

It has an extra hole at the top where I got carried away with the bind it all machine!

This next one you won't have seen yet and I love the colours etc - it's just a pity that I didn't line the machine up properly and it has two extra holes too!

The last picture is of the back cover - the insides of the covers have also been covered in coordinating paper.

This last one is not going to be for sale as it's a present for my father in law for fathers day (I'm pretty sure he doesn't read the blog but) - you can still let me know what you think though!

He goes to lots of meetings and always has scrappy bits of paper and then they get lost etc so I thought I would make him a notebook!

Anyway - let me know what you think about selling the slightly flawed ones on Etsy - oh and whether you like them too!

Monday, 9 June 2008

So for Darcies party yesterday I made a baking set with cute little apron, some child friendly recipe cards, baking equipment and a drawstring bag for it all to go in. I stupidly forgot to get a picture of it before I wrapped it up but here's a picture of one I made for Emily last year so you'll get the general gist!

The recipe cards were different this time as I included ones that told simple recipes in pictures so that Darcie could follow them. The apron was also slightly different as I edged it all red gingham fabric and did a velcro fastening neckline so it can grow with her! I didn't get the chance to personalise Darcies either as my sewing machine has been behaving badly! It needs to last up until Thursday evening as I have a little boys birthday present to make and my Dad's fathers day one too! It needs to go into the shop but I'm hoping it will last until the last weekend of June as Matt and I are away that weekend and I can drop it off on the Thursday morning and pick it up on the Tuesday. Fingers crossed that Janine (the Janome) will last that long!

Anyway I'd better go as I have little ones who need to go to bed and they aren't following shouted instructions from here to tidy up the dining room so I'd better go and help!